Passover: The Blood of the Lamb
Feasts of Israel Part 5
"The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13).
God did more than draw Israel out of bondage on Passover. He drew them into Himself by establishing a newer, deeper relationship with them through covenant by having them take the blood of the lamb.
Covenants are agreements that bind two parties together so tightly that they essentially become a single entity. Anything touching one member of the relationship automatically affects the other. The two rejoice, suffer, and fight as one. Establishing a covenant with His people ensured that anyone coming after Israel would have to confront Israel’s God.
Of all covenants, the most powerful involved the spilling of blood. As the symbol of life itself,[1] blood spoke of a lifelong bond that could only be dissolved if one party proved unfaithful to it. The Old Testament process of “cutting covenant” involved splitting a sacrificial animal in half and allowing two pieces to serve as proxies for the two participants. The halves were laid side-by-side and, as they walked together between the bloody pieces, their lives merged into one.
Take the Blood of the Lamb
God chose a lamb to be the covenant animal for the ritual. But how was Israel going to walk through its pieces if they were also going to eat the sacrifice? “Take the blood,” God told them in Exodus 12:8, “and paint it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of your houses.” When they walked through their doors that night they would figuratively pass through the pieces of the lamb by passing through its blood.
But how would God pass through the pieces? Consider the Hebrew word for Passover–Pesach. It means more than “pass over.” It means to “hover over protectively.”[2] While the destroyer prowled in the dark for unprotected firstborns, God hovered near the blood-spattered doors, waving him off. As far as God was concerned, He and the family within the tent had walked together through the ratifying blood of the lamb.
There was one little problem. While God knew he would be absolutely faithful to the covenant, he also knew the people he hovered over would not. Their inevitable disobedience threatened the entire arrangement. A human representative was required to walk through the pieces for the rest of God’s people–one who was capable of sticking to the agreement with absolute faithfulness.
The Perfect Man Steps Forward
Jesus entered the world as the Son of Man. Not just any man, but the “Seed,” the Son of Adam promised back in Genesis 3:15. Born of Mary, Jesus took on flesh and blood to qualify himself as the man to walk the pieces with God. His divine nature assured His faithfulness to the covenant.
During the first Passover, however, Israel’s Messiah was still thousands of years in the future. The little lamb they killed that spring day demonstrated their faith in God and in his instructions. Their faith allowed God to transcend time and accept its blood in place of the blood of the Lamb who was to come.
Faith is how we too come into a covenant relationship with God. We weren’t there when Jesus died on the cross as our Passover Lamb, but if we believe he is the one God sent to save us from destruction, we can hide behind his protective blood. If you’ve felt a stirring, hovering presence over your life, it just might be the Holy Spirit urging you to shelter in his dwelling place and become part of his covenant family.
Don’t be afraid to say yes. There’s safety within.
[1] Leviticus 17:11
[2] Kevin J. Conner, The Feasts of Israel (Portland: City Christian Publishing, 1980), 18. (See also: https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-passover-on-the-true-meaning-of-pesah)
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